‘Ticks all those boxes’: The exciting verdict over Portsmouth deadline day signing and former Stoke City and Hibs man

Pompey have been given a glowing review over new signing Josef Bursik.

The 25-year-old made the move to Fratton Park on deadline day and was one of four new faces to arrive through the doors on the transfer window’s climax. The keeper penned a two-year deal after making the move for an undisclosed fee from Club Brugge.

Although Bursik failed to register an outing for the Belgian top-flight outfit, the former England youth international made waves after coming through the ranks with Stoke City.

That was recognised by John Mousinho, who was delighted to add further Championship experience to his goalkeeping department.

During his time at the Potters, the new Blues signing spent time with Doncaster Rivers under the guidance of former Pompey defender Darren Moore.

Although Bursik spent just two months at the Eco-Power Stadium, keeping two clean sheets in 11 League One appearances in 2020, he did enough to impress the former Rovers boss at the time.

And Moore spoke highly of the keeper during his time with Doncaster highlighting his impressive qualities.

Josef Bursik Doncaster Rovers verdict

The former Rovers boss told our sister paper, the Doncaster Free Press, at the time: ‘I’m really pleased to get him in. When we identified him at the end of last season, Joe was on a list of four potential keepers we thought we could bring in.

‘We were delighted to get him on board because we felt he was suited to what we wanted coming in here - someone with a good pedigree, a good background, good size and stature and someone we feel we could take to the next level with consistency to perform.

‘For one so young he’s got a lot of footballing experience already and we’re hopeful he can continue that with us.

‘He pulled a couple of good saves off with his positional sense being correct. That will have done him the world of good.

‘He’s got good maturity for his age. He’s still developing and refining himself into the complete goalkeeper, but he’s someone we’re delighted to have in here.

‘He’s got all those attributes we wanted as well as his size. We had on our radar a certain amount of goalkeepers that we felt are suited to what we want here and he ticks all those boxes.’

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Josef Bursik’s career to date

Following his time with Doncaster, Bursik would go on to establish himself at Stoke before securing a move to Club Brugge.

However, he struggled to kick start his career in Belgium and failed to register an appearance before joining Hibs on a season-long loan last summer.

The new Pompey stopper registered 17 appearances for the Scottish Premiership outfit before returning to the Jan Breydel Arena at the end of last term.

Bursik has since signed a two-year deal on the south coast and joins Nicolas Schmid, Jordan Archer and Ben Killip in the Blues’ goalkeeping department.

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